What Does Bankruptcy of Bally Sports' Parent Company Mean for the Twins?

Blackout rules for mlb.tv might not be THE stupidest thing in professional sports but it's right up there.  Let's see....your sport is losing popularity.  So....let's make it HARDER for fans to see their team play.  Genius.

And the fact that you can't stream local radio broadcasts of games at all..

How can my favorite sport and entertainment keep making not just the wrong decisions to improve its popularity, but be 180 degrees off time after time?

And don't get me started on 9pm starts for team USA in the WBC...

My TMobile cellular plan is providing MLB TV as a perk to use their service. They did the same last year, also. Living in Iowa, I’m subject to blackouts, but I have a VPN (virtual private network) to get around that issue. 

I have the Extra Inning package, so I get 26 of the 30 teams--I'm blacked out of Houston, St. Louis, Kansas City and Texas (even though I'm over 4 hours from the closest stadium)--unless one of those 4 are playing one of the 26.   I can, however, see the blackout games an hour and a half after they end.  So, to see those 14 KC games and the 15-17 with the others, I will either wait and see them the next morning or go to https://mlb66.ir/simulator to watch them live on my laptop. 

I don't get about 1/5 of what I pay for with Extra Innings because of the blackout rules, but I can't make myself go to the bootleg site full time.  At least not yet. 

Would the twins possibly starting their own network be an option? I believe they tried that sometime in the early 2000s.

Gonna be interesting.  I guess we will have to wait and see.  Or not.

Has anyone actually ever tried to ask MLB for their written consent to broadcast the game?  Maybe they just say “go ahead”.  

But seriously, $40M a year in the grand scheme of things isn’t that much. Honestly in the world of steaming YouTube should try to get a contract for every team currently with Bally’s.  I know grandma and grandpa will be confused how to watch a game but I think the handful of games they produce are pretty good. If they get rights to every game I think they could invest in more interactive type of content.  With that sort stuff they could add in stadium type stuff when you have the you tube app on your phone and your at the game.  I think Ballys going bankrupt could offer MLB the chance to really change the way a game is broadcast.  MLB has a chance to be ahead of the curve in the way a baseball game is aired.  One idea that current play by play guys would hate, is let people use YouTube’s stream and individuals broadcast the game on their own YouTube channel.  Imagine TwinsDaily having their own writers calling a game.  It would sort of be like Manning cast, but anyone could do it!  Covid showed us you don’t HAVE to be at the game to call it.  

Does anybody know the status of the BSN contracts with the Wild and Timberwolves?  That would have to play into this in terms of making their own network work.

It means that the 150 games a year we've been able to watch for free for the last few decades will no longer be free.  OK, maybe they haven't been free.  They've been factored into our cable cost.  But at the end of the day they WILL end up costing you MORE.  Which MIGHT be fine.  The majority of folks who will read this have spent decades begging for the team to spend more.  Here's our opportunity to contribute more so they CAN spend more.  We should all be ecstatic.

Well, in the end as always, we will end up spending more, and quite a bit more. Right now, nothing is free, we pay for the cable subscription. But in that way we get all the sports. In a couple of years, we will have to have a subscription to watch baseball, another to watch hockey, another for basketball, another for soccer, and so on. So, business models continue to evolve to squeeze every penny out of us.

8 hours ago, Richmond Dude said:

Does anybody know the status of the BSN contracts with the Wild and Timberwolves?  That would have to play into this in terms of making their own network work.

The Wild & Wolves are an important part of this equation; having pro baseball, basketball, and hockey all on the same network made it more attractive to cable and satellite systems and positioned it to command a better rate. if that splits off? That influences streaming as well. Much easier to sell a streaming service that bring all three sports to the table than just one.

4 hours ago, TaterTot said:

Would the twins possibly starting their own network be an option? I believe they tried that sometime in the early 2000s.

Victory sports one.  The Twins and Carl Pohlad started it.  They were trying to copy the YES network, (Yankees).  The cable and satellite companies denied them in their packages because they were trying to charge too much.  It soon folded.  

While I fully agree with all that's been said here thus far and sympathize with those being affected, being an "out of market" viewer appears to insulate me from many of the concerns raised here, for the 2023 season,  at least.  I switched off the MLB Extra Innings on DirecTV package beginning this year in favor streaming on MLB.com.  Still affected by the archaic blackout rules, but that part (supposedly) won't change at all under the streaming package I purchased. 

I also fully agree that the outdated manner in which MLB sees that its team's games are broadcast needs to change significantly.  However, I don't have a good solution to offer regarding the most efficient and practical way to deal with it.

I switched to YouTube TV when it did carry the RSNs. After 2020, I watch wherever I could find the game (Fox, FS1, ESPN, Apple+, YouTube), and I have MLB.tv (as a STH and t-mobile customer). As a partial plan STH, I get to maybe 30-35 games/season in person.  For all the rest, if I really want to see a game I'll go to a bar, or try to do a self imposed media blackout until I can watch on MLB.tv (annoying and inconvenient). I listen to the radio broadcast most of the time, though.  MLB is losing fans and viewers and def not attracting new ones with this nonsense. They can't afford to do that for the long term health of the game.

1 hour ago, jmlease1 said:

The Wild & Wolves are an important part of this equation; having pro baseball, basketball, and hockey all on the same network made it more attractive to cable and satellite systems and positioned it to command a better rate. if that splits off? That influences streaming as well. Much easier to sell a streaming service that bring all three sports to the table than just one.

The impact to the cable companies revenue could be high if they can't find a way to bundle it in like they do today.  If I'm a cable company exec I would try to find anyway I can to offer MLB.com as an add on service or bundle it into a package tier so i don't give my subscriber base any more reasons to cut the cord.  And the teams win in this scenario too because it makes it easier to watch.  Yes it's not difficult to click an app and stream it but  there is a very large demographic of older consumers who will not want to deal with it and just want to go to channel xx and watch their Twins.

Just remember (and it is interesting for the legal beagles), Manfred has said if Bally rejects one contract, MLB will attempt to terminate all. Given the anti-trust status that MLB now has, it should be interesting. Long term either areas or teams will set up their own RSN's or everything will be streaming.  This will also affect the cable companies as they will lose many subscribers without the local sports on the cable.  Since I don't know the ad revenue numbers maybe some combination of streaming and local TV is where it ends up  Then you have the major issue of the cord cutters, and people who use VPN's to gain access. 

Interesting comments from everyone.    I'm not smart enough I guess to have any answers.  All I know is after cutting the very expensive cable, we went to streaming to watch Twins.  We switched 3 times in streaming to try and watch the Twins.  Each of the services dropping the Twins due to costs etc.    Now I've been unable to watch the Twins at home.  This is the third year of this.  Twins said they were working on a solution.  Yet this is the third year with very limited coverage and nothing was done.  All I know is I used to pay my cable or streaming billeach month mostly for local sports.  Now I can't, for three seasons.  Does anyone really care? I guess not.

I've been an avid Twins fan since the 70's and am soon to be 58 years old.  I haven't lived in Minnesota since childhood, 1979 to be exact.  I've been to many games at the Met, the Dome, and Target Field.  None recently.  I've avidly listened to radio broadcasts for years, attempting to tune into WCCO or more local radio, when possible, here in Iowa.  I started watching many games a year back when FSN became available on DirecTV.  Eventually, DirecTV was charging me $160 a month and I finally said, "forget it" and cut the satellite cord in favor of Hulu for $60 a month.  Of course FSN became Bally and Bally don't play ball with Hulu.  Well, here I am in Iowa blacked out from the Twins/Brewers/Cubs/White Sox/Royals these past several years and no way to watch on TV.  Guess what I ain't doing.  I ain't going to no stinking games at Target Field because I'm fed up with MLB's archaic rules.

Here's what else I have to say.  I've been a teacher in high schools since 1990.  In those 33 years I've watched as teenagers have become less and less enamored with sports in general and baseball specifically.  It used to be that students talked about the World Series or their favorite team.  Now, none of them talk about it, at all!  They do still talk once in a while about the NBA or the NFL.  I currently work in an urban school in Des Moines and, by far, the sport of choice is...Soccer!  

MLB has a huge problem on it's hands that will "come of age" over the next 20 years because almost nobody below the age of 30 cares, at all!  Good luck finding revenue.

On 3/18/2023 at 8:30 AM, jmlease1 said:

The Wild & Wolves are an important part of this equation; having pro baseball, basketball, and hockey all on the same network made it more attractive to cable and satellite systems and positioned it to command a better rate. if that splits off? That influences streaming as well. Much easier to sell a streaming service that bring all three sports to the table than just one.

I'll buttress your point with my own experience. I'm in my mid-30's and grew up with MN sports, but I cut the cord over a decade ago.

While I grew up watching the Wild and Wolves, I no longer watch any sport other than baseball. Last season I paid roughly $200 split between the single team MLB.tv subscription and a VPN to get around the blackouts. I live in the Fargo-Moorhead area and it costs more than that to go to a single game regardless of the sport. Gas, tickets, food, potentially a place to stay depending on if friends can put us up for a night, not to mention the travel time involved, and you've got a recipe for waning interest in professional sports altogether.

A streaming option which includes all or most of the MN sports franchises is exactly the way to bolster interest from fans like myself.

The services have to meet their customers where they are, and cable is not where people my age and younger are found.

2 hours ago, silverslugger said:

I currently work in an urban school in Des Moines

I literally laughed out loud when I read this phrase😂

The name of the game is still advertising for whomever does the broadcasts. Cable services are dying fast, yet people can/will only spend so much on streamning services with so many to choose from. 

I don't think the answer is MLB controlling broadcast baseball. But is antenna TV still anywhere in the mix? Can cable offer some results? Is streaming via APple or youtube or whatever the real deal necessary? How much do WE pay to watch a game, and how much can advertising generate additional income, with money going back to the teams, MLB, and shareholders?

On 3/18/2023 at 8:21 AM, adjacent said:

Well, in the end as always, we will end up spending more, and quite a bit more. Right now, nothing is free, we pay for the cable subscription. But in that way we get all the sports. In a couple of years, we will have to have a subscription to watch baseball, another to watch hockey, another for basketball, another for soccer, and so on. So, business models continue to evolve to squeeze every penny out of us.

Since I basically only care about baseball this is great for me.

I don't think the Twins will have any bids from cable channels for their upcoming TV rights, especially because streaming rights will not be part of the contract. I'm optimistic this means they will find an over the air broadcast partner (Channel 45?) for some games and rely on streaming for the rest.

The league hiring executives from RSNs is pretty telling.  It would appear they are gearing up to take control of the broadcast product and how it is distributed.  Understanding all the financial and legal implications is a deep well.  I presume that's why the first hire was Billy Chambers.  If you are looking at different options for a "future state", you need someone like Chambers to oversee that analysis.  This is their chance to reconstruct the current model in a manner that makes it much easier to get ALL of the games no matter where you live.

I watch BSN streaming on Fubo so that is my 2023 plan.  I will assess 2024 when it comes.  If too expensive, then I will listen to the games on the radio and review the daily game log on this site.  I tried a few years back just reviewing the game log real-time but outside a lot of oohs and aahs how'd he miss that, it was tough to know the running score.

I just hope in 2024 that they do not go with a combo package (Apple, Hulu, YouTube, etc.) package as I hate creating additional Internet accounts and trying to find out which streaming package the game for the day is on and I refuse to pay for multiple streaming sites.  It's tolerable now as 99% are on BSN, but I'd ask that the team stay away from the 25% here, 25% there model.

In regards to the TD daily game thread, it would be great if TD could have a box at the top with the score, inning, outs and player pitching and player at bat to help with that.